Hello!!

I just finished my first concert the day before yesterday. (1 down 11 more to go!) This concert was about 1 hour away from Tokyo in a very big civic auditorium. The audience was very friendly and nice and of course I had a wonderful time! Yesterday a couple friends of my family took us to Mt. Fuji. It was so beautiful (a little chilly) and I was able to find lots and lots of little cute souvenirs.

So now I am in my hotel room taking a break from practicing. I’m not really sure what I’m going to do today. Practicing all day in the room doesn’t sound much fun, so I might just go out and do a little SHOPPING!

Hope everyone is doing well!

-Esther

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to write another blog to let you know that my new CD was released just a couple days ago. Right now it is only being sold in Japan at the moment, but hopefully it will also be available in other countries very soon. Here is a link to a few sites where you can purchase

Esther’s CD
Another place to buy the CD
You can listen to short clips here

Heres what is on the CD:

1. Salut d’amour by Edward Elgar
2. It Ain’t Necessarily so by Gershwin/Heifetz
3. Beethoven Spring Sonata (I movement)
4. La Ronde des Lutins by Bazzini
5. Nocturne in C# minor by Chopin/Milstein
6. Csardas by Monti
7. Dvorak Four Romantic Pieces (1st movement)
8. Liebesfreud by Kreisler
9. Liebesleid
10. Zigeunerweisen by Sarasate
11. Estrellita by Ponce/Heifetz

Hi Everyone!

April has been quite a month for me–I can’t believe it’s already almost over! This month started off with my 21st birthday! Believe it or not, I had a very nice and quiet birthday party–spent it mostly with my parents in California. We went to this seafood restaurant and I ate WAY too many oysters!

Two days later, I left for Japan to make a recording. The CD will mainly be compiled of my favorite short encore pieces.The recording process was very fun, but also very tedious; I spent 12 hours in a studio, from 11 AM to 11PM(,)for three days. At the end of the recording process, I was so exhausted and got quite sick!

Nonetheless, everything went successfully, and my producer and I were very happy with the way in turned out. I spent 10 days total in Tokyo and enjoyed every second of it! This recording will be released on May 10th and will be available to everyone, so I will definitely post again once it is officially out. I’m excited for
it to officially come out!

Now I am in Busan, Korea. I just finished my concert with the Busan Symphony Orchestra. The concert was very successful and the hall (seated a little over 1000 people) was just about full. I played Sarasate’s, “Zigeunerweisen” and “Carmen Fantasy” and ended up playing Salut d’amour as an encore. The audience was so great! I’m leaving back to the states tomorrow morning now, so I better get started on packing (my least favorite thing to do). Hope everyone had a great month and I’ll write again soon!

Happy July 4th!

I’ve been on tour with the Vermont Symphony tour since the 26th of June–we’ve just played our 8th concert in our 8th city and we still have two more to go.

VSO blog link

Some photos…

It was pouring on this day but people actually still came and brought umbrellas, raincoats, etc. It was really nice to know that people were still enthusiastic about the concert regardless of the terrible weather!

Duchess getting a piece of chicken…She looks like a giant here…

This is from one of the concert sites! We actually had great weather this day and drew quite a crowd!

Duchess studying the nuances of violin chin rests…

Fireworks! We had them every night.

Hello Everyone,

Please pardon my very delayed blog update. These past few months have been very busy and exciting!

A few weeks ago my violin underwent an operation. The neck of my violin was a bit larger than the norm, so after many months of hesitation and consideration, I finally decided to take it to New York to get the neck thinned. I’m so attached and used to having my violin with me all the time that it was very nerve wrecking to leave it at the shop for longer than normal.

Now that the neck is smaller, everything feels much better. I can really feel the difference. It’s funny how such a minute measurement can make the biggest difference! While I was in New York, I had the chance to see one of my favorite operas, La Traviata. The Metropolitan Opera stage production was so colorful, everything was extremely detailed and on top of that the singers were phenomenal! Krassimira Stoyanova played an excellent Violetta. Not only did her voice sound wonderful, but her stage presence and acting really fit with the characteristic of Violetta. She took a lot of rubato in a few of the arias, but it showed her own personal style, and was still within the boundaries of being tasteful.

Right now, I am in Bloomington, Indiana. I only have a couple more weeks of school and then it’s off to Vienna for a concert. I haven’t been to Vienna in a very long time so I’m really looking forward to the trip. I’ll write more when I get back.

Until then, Auf Wiedersehen!

-Esther

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